The Bangladesh data (bdeshc.sav) will
demonstrate the exercise in targeting with consideration to both prevalence and raw
numbers. Go through the following exercise to practice this concept, looking carefully at
the diarrhea prevalence and numbers in males and females by district. First, use the
prevalence and population less than 5 years to compute the numbers of children with
diarrhea in the last 2 weeks.

3. For the population Numeric Expression box
by selecting the variable for population-[pop] and prevalence of diarrhea-total- [diaprvfm]
from the left hand variable box and inserting them with the arrow button into the Numeric
expression box.
Formula: (pop* .2) *(diaprvfm / 100)

4. Press OK

5. Check for a new variable added to the end
of the data set called diarnum.

Now, create a list of the number and
prevalence of diarrhea using the Sort and Case Summaries options:

1. Click on Data, Sort cases, and
insert diaprvfm from the variable box into the Sort by box.

2. Click on Sort order Descending.

3. Click on OK. (This will sort from
high to low for diarrhea prevalence by district)

4. Click on Statistics, Summarize, and
Case Summaries.

5. Enter the following variables in this
order into the right hand Variable box using the arrow button:

diaprvfm
diarnum
district

6. Do not enter a variable into the Grouping
Variables box. Click on the Options button and de-select the subheadings for
totals. Click Continue.

7. Click on the Statistics button and
remove any variables from the Cell statistics box, then click on Continue
and then on OK.

Here is what the result looks like:

INTERPRETATION:

The list is in order of descent by prevalence of
diarrhea; therefore the first district Nawabganj has the highest prevalence of diarrhea.
Despite this, Nawabganj does not have the highest absolute number of cases of diarrhea.
The districts of Chittagong, Comilla, and Kishoreganj have the largest numbers of affected
children. If an intervention program can only reach 20 areas, listing the areas in such a
way can help in weighting the areas for targeting those that need it the most. It will
also depend on the nature of the illness being targeted including the communicability of
the illness and the current access to health care.